CBCI to have Revised Health and HIV/AIDS Policies

New Delhi – The CBCI will have a revised Health Policy and a new HIV/AIDS policy soon. According to the Executive Secretary of the CBCI Commission for Healthcare, Father Alex Vadakunthala, the process initiated by the Commission in March 2004, with the technical support from the Futures Group and USAID, has gone through national and regional level consultations.

The drafts of these policies were prepared after a series of workshops and consultations, both at national and regional levels.

The national consultation was held at Heritage Village at Manesar, near New Delhi during 27–29 September 2004 that was presided over by the Chairman of the CBCI Health Commission, Archbishop Bernard Mores. Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India and the Chairman for Indian Parliamentarians’ Forum for HIV/AIDS, Oscar Fernandes inaugurated the consultation.

The participants of the consultation included 11 Bishop Chairmen of regional Health Commissions, and over 40 other representatives from national and international organizations like Caritas India, Catholic Medical Mission Board, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Health Association of India, Sister Doctors’ Forum of India, Catholic Nurses Guild, Conference of Religious India, Secretaries of CBCI Commissions and doctors and other experts.

The Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI), in collaboration with CBCI Health Commission and the Futures Group has coordinated the 11 Regional Consultations. Incorporating the suggestions from the regional consultations, the drafting committee will revise the draft at it’s meeting, which will be held January 22–23 2005 at the CBCI Centre, Delhi. The Bishops of the Health Commission will meet on February 2, 2005 to give the final touch to the draft. This text then will be presented to the CBCI Standing Committee for the final approval.